NEW ORLEANS – An outside expert investigating the cause of a partial power outage during Super Bowl XLVII has confirmed that the failure occurred because a relay device malfunctioned.

Utah-based forensic engineer John Palmer released his findings Thursday.

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Entergy, the company that supplies electricity to the Superdome, and the stadium's management company hired Palmer to perform an independent analysis of the Feb. 3 outage.

Entergy has said it believed the outage was caused by an electrical relay device it installed specially to prevent a power failure at the dome. Entery New Orleans President and CEO Charles Rice says the company is pleased that Palmer's analysis confirmed the relay operated in an unpredictable manner.

The partial blackout delayed the game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers for 34 minutes.